Edmond Malone

Malone, Edmond, 1741–1812, English literary critic and Shakespearean scholar, b. Ireland. His studies (1778) in the chronology of Shakespeare's plays are still considered highly valuable. He was among the first to see through the supposed antiquity of the poems of Thomas Chatterton, and in 1796 he exposed the Shakespearean forgeries of William Ireland. His monumental edition of Shakespeare was left unfinished at his death and was completed (21 vol., 1821) by Boswell's son James. The Malone Society, founded in 1907 for the purpose of furthering the study of early English drama by printing dramatic texts and documents, was named after him.